Perfect love fact or fiction?
by KensieRae
Summary: (Bright:Hannah) One-shot. What if Hannah turned her visit home into something more permanent? What if after that she returned to Everwood three years later? Could she and Bright ever have anything?


_I don't own Everwood._

It had been a long time since Hannah had been back to Everwood. When she went home to visit she had discovered how much she missed home and her family and decided to stay. It took leaving to find out that she loved her dad enough to get over her fears and pain to try and make things easier on her father and even easier on her mother. This was what she needed most, to find a way to grow up. Because knowing that she had friends somewhere who would let her be a kid when she needed to be allowed her to step and be the adult when her mom couldn't take it anymore. But she never could figure out what to say to thank them, so she put it off to the point of never writing or calling them again. But now it was all over, he was finally in peace in heaven and she was going back to try and find those who made her the most herself.

Bright spent a week wondering why he was so anxious for Hannah's return. She was more Amy's friend, but he had begun to enjoy having her around more and more. It took less time than Amy expected for him to realize that her advice on finding love was pointed. He knew he missed Hannah from about the second minute that she was gone. It was a year later before he realized that everyday he checked for a letter from her, but even after that year he couldn't stop. Once he moved out he still called every night to check and see if she had written or called. After having finally realized that he knew what being in love felt like, he also discovered he couldn't pretend with anyone else. So in the three years that she had been gone he never dated and he always wished he could, honestly that he could do anything to be over her.

Hannah jumped back behind a Captain Crunch display. It had to be her imagination. You would never find Bright grocery shopping in a suit at five in the morning. Bright didn't even know that anything was open that early. No it must just be another guy who looked like him. After all in college she had dated three or four guys who looked like him until she realized what she was doing and made herself stop. She ordered herself to stop hiding just as the guy turned and made it very obvious that he was not Bright. Why was she even still thinking about him? Before she could ponder this for very long the guy reaching over her head to grab a box of cereal said her name. Her heart began to rush as she realized it was he. Wait, was he doing here? She specifically picked a store just out of town to avoid seeing them before she was ready. And instead of responding Hannah ran out of the store forgetting the things she had thought she needed so bad.

Bright quickly dropped the cereal box and hit the doors right after her.

He began jogging towards her, "Hannah, wait up. Hannah, stop!"

She turned and just stared at him, waiting for him to speak.

"You left us. When did you come back? You never wrote. God, Hannah why? Do you have any idea how much Amy worried about you?"

He seemed so angry, so hurt.

"I never knew what to say, how to think everyone for the little things that you guys never even knew you did. And Amy knew where I was, she could have called or written at any point. I'm not the only one responsible for writing. God damn it Bright, do you have any idea how much I wished that someone would open the lines of communication?" And with that she leaned up kissed his cheek and walked away, but just before she was out of sight she turned back and called out, "I'll be at Nina's if you want to get in touch."

Bright was stunned. He waited so long to talk to her and knew he had blown it at the beginning. And then he laughed. He wondered if she knew that knocking on Nina's door would not bring the expected results. Nina had married Andy Brown almost two years ago and sold her house to Ephram and Amy when they married last month. He wondered if he should call to warn Amy but knew that death would be imminent for anyone calling during Ephram's precious sleeping time.

He knew that Amy would not let her leave for at least four or so hours. That gave him plenty of time to figure out what to do to make up for lost time. He loved her and he was going to put his heart out there until she accepted it or broke it to the point it could never be put back together. He thought about all the times before when he would have to apologize to Hannah for something that he had done to her. It wasn't so much what he had done this time though, as what time had done to them. For him it strengthened the knowledge that he loved her but maybe she had found someone who loved her, maybe it's why she never came back.

When Amy came back from answering the door she was alone, but shaking her head and laughing. "Hannah, Bright left something on the doorstep for you. He said he hopes you remember."

Baby ketchup. She couldn't help but laugh. Written on the cap on all of them was 4:30 – high school. Exactly what he had planned she wasn't even going to try and imagine, but even after all these years she compared every guy to met to the man she had always known Bright would become. And according to the things Amy had been telling her she was dead on in her assessment of whom he was. When she arrived at the high school Bright was no where to be found. She was almost tackled as a football player ran towards her. "Hey, are you Hannah? Coach said to tell you to go to his office." And then he ran off as quickly as he appeared.

"Coach, huh? Who was crazy enough to put you in charge?" she asked leaning back against the doorframe.

He stood up, took her hand, and led her to his desk chair. "After you left I wrote you letters all the time. Of course, I only wrote them in my head and never on paper. So that's what I did this morning. I tried to follow your example and put my feelings on paper. Corny, right?"

She read the letter over twice and then walked out. It was too easy for him to say he loved her. She turned back to see him sitting at his desk, head in his hands. That's when she knew, he loved her. Now, for the first time in their relationship, it was her turn to apologize.

Years later when she rolled over in bed she curled up against Bright and smiled. He would always be there. She had seen perfect love in her mother as she stayed by her father's side throughout his illness and now she had someone who she knew would loved her at least that much if not more.

_Its one shot. It had just been rolling around in my head for a few weeks. So there you have it. Love it, hate it it's your choice._


End file.
